The sheriff’s office says they received at least two calls before arriving on the scene to find Roberts-Neal lying on the ground with gunshot wounds.

Many nearby residents didn’t want to go on camera for fear of retaliation, but say this particular portion of Hopkins St. is not usually known for violence.

“Those killing, that’s not the people that live in the community,” said Bell. “It’s isolated incidents that give this community a bad name.”

Bell says he’s been living on the west end for about 25 years and says the uptick in violence across the city has a lot to do with a lack of policing.

“We need city policing,” said Bell.

Bell says he feels the sheriff’s office has too much on its plate to effectively protect the area.

“You can’t have ten patrol cars of the parish to control a city of this size, and not only that, you have to get to know the people in the community not just the few lil thugs that hang around,” said Bell.

Bell says he would just like to see more police, ministers, and city officials take to the streets.

“It’s sad that we can’t get our councilmen to work on positive things in our community, like right now with what happened they should be out here and trying to find out a way that we can solve this problem,” said Bell.